Miracle drugs result from profit motive

Everyone knows you get what you pay for. That is the principal reason I am opposed to any government interference with the market-based health system.

On Jan. 9, the stock price of Intercept Pharma rose from $70 to $240. There we go again, another big drug company and its management getting rich; probably filthy rich.

If you have a disease called "non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver," you won't care how rich Intercept Pharma gets; your life may have just been saved. Tests show Intercept Pharma can now cure you completely with a drug.

The results were so dramatic, in fact, that those in the drug trial that received a "placebo" were immediately supplied with the drug in a move to save lives.

Another drug company has developed medicine that allowed those with muscular dystrophy to walk up to 100 steps in trials. Imagine a near-future cure for that horrible disease.

No doubt these drugs will be expensive. Why shouldn't those who invent life-saving, life-changing miracle drugs be richly rewarded for extreme risk and advanced spending in hope they can succeed before others do?

Of course, drugs like this are cheaper in those countries with socialized medicine, but please note, few drugs are invented in those countries. The risks simply outweigh the possible rewards.

If we leave the system alone, capitalism will eventually supply what we all want, lowest cost but effective medical care — just as it has supplied the best standard of living anywhere. After all, you get what you pay for!